Doctor fish is the name given species of fish: Garra rufa. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, physio fish, and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker. They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects. The spas are not meant as a curative treatment option, only as a temporary alleviation of symptoms, and patients usually revisit the spas every few months.
Read more about Doctor Fish: Occurrence, Spa Resorts, Legal Status
Famous quotes containing the words doctor and/or fish:
“It seems to me that your doctor [Tronchin] is more of a philosopher than a physician. As for me, I much prefer a doctor who is an optimist and who gives me remedies that will improve my health. Philosophical consolations are, after all, useless against real ailments. I know only two kinds of sickness—physical and moral: all the others are purely in the imagination.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Science, which cuts its way through the muddy pond of daily life without mingling with it, casts its wealth to right and left, but the puny boatmen do not know how to fish for it.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)